A current obsession of mine is the death of the trend of green. What if, as Tom Friedman keeps saying, there are no green cars, only cars? What if there are no green light bulbs, only light bulbs? That is, what if environmentally-friendly products and practices just became the way things were done?
We might be closer than we think.
5. Let's start with the Friedman business:
Ultimately, he said, the word "green" should disappear.
Instead of a small number of energy-efficient buildings and cars, he said, all should be built that way -- eliminating the need for a "green" designation.
"It won't be a green car, just a car," he said.
4. Ecology Today writes that the green movement is dead, and that it's being replaced by "lean green" -- though what it all means is sort of unclear.
Let's put it to rest. What we did under Bush was keep the flame burning. The flame will burn but the green movement, as it was under Bush, is dead. It was the green movement of the moment of expectation. Now we've got the power and no excuses. Our resolve has to be put to the test.
Dedicated folks from all walks of life brought the environmental movement back from the brink of extinction to the point where eight years later the nation is poised to go green.
3. Graham Hill builds on that notion, clarifying it in a post here on the death of green:
The Inauguration is over. Let's just pick up the trash, recycle it, and figure out what to do next. Get creative. Buy a carbon offset for someone you know (or someone you don't) that went to the festivities. Start your garden today. Make your own granola bars. Or all of the above. Or something else entirely. The old green may be dead. The new green is a green-for-all.
2. A specially-organized "green" portion of Fashion Week went kaput because sponsors didn't want to pay, but The Exception Magazine notes that "green" is gone only in name:
The lack of big-brand sponsors contributed to the cancellation of EarthPledge's FutureFashion show this year, which had in the past coincided with New York's main Fashion Week hosted by IMG and Mercedes-Benz.
Nevertheless, at Fashion Week this year, spectators can still expect to see a healthy serving of sustainable materials and designs on the runway.
1. Esquire's obituary for the word "green" ran in their March 2008 issue.
Green, 36, Is Dead
The word green, which for decades served as a signifier of something that helped the environment or promoted sustainability, lost all meaning Monday. It was thirty-six. Green had shown surprising resilience recently, surviving a series of assaults including the introduction of "green" chain saws and "green" sable coats. It defied experts by living through a special Green Week promotion on NBC, which included a two-minute dialogue on Law & Order: SVU about composting cadavers. It even made it through several ads from Beyond Petroleum (formerly British Petroleum) featuring footage of floating leaves and waterfalls. Green succumbed Monday with the filing of a patent application for "Green Styrofoam," a type of Styrofoam that decomposes in approximately eight million years, instead of the usual eleven million.
(We don't think the word "green" is dead, but we can appreciate the sentiment.)